Background

Introduction

Dr María-Teresa Gil-Bazo is Senior Lecturer in Law at Newcastle Law School, where she teaches Public International Law, EU Law, and The Movement of Persons in a Global World. She is also Member of the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer Review College, Senior Research Associate at the School of Advanced Studies (University of London), Fellow of the European Law Institute (Vienna), and External Expert of the EU Asylum Office (EASO). Dr Gil-Bazo qualified as a lawyer in 1993 and is Member of the Spanish Bar Council.

Prior to joining Newcastle Law School, Dr Gil-Bazo was Lecturer in International Human Rights and Refugee Law at Oxford University, where she has also been Director of its International Summer School in Forced Migration.

Roles and Responsibilities

Research Ethics Coordinator (2015 - )

Director of Postgraduate Research Degrees (2011-2012 & 2014)

Deputy Director of Postgraduate Research Degrees (2012 - 2014)

PGR Selector (2012 - 2014)

Member of Newcastle University Northern Bridge Management Group (2013 - 2014)

Languages

Research

Research Interests

Dr Gil-Bazo's areas of interest include International Law, EU Law, Human Rights, and Refugee Law. Dr Gil-Bazo was awarded her PhD in 1999 (University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain) with a dissertation on The Right to Be Granted Asylum in International Law carried under the supervision of Professor Fernando Mariño Menéndez (former Chair of the UN Committee Against Torture) and funded by a Research Grant awarded by the Basque Research Council.

Dr Gil-Bazo’s research examines the relationship between the individual and the State as subjects of international law. In particular, it analyses the way in which the transformation of sovereignty -especially by virtue of States’ membership in international organisations- may be redefining that relationship. Her research focuses on Europe and examines the way in which the status of individuals is shaped by the interaction between different legal orders: international law (of universal and regional scope) and EU law.

Dr Gil-Bazo's core research has been on the right to asylum as a human right. She first advanced the argument that as developments in the field of international human rights law are of complementary nature to international refugee law, a right to be granted asylum (understood as the right to enter, stay and not to be forcibly removed from a country) could be found in the combined application of international refugee and human rights law, as well as in State practice across different legal traditions. Her work was funded by a Research Grant awarded by Deusto University (Spain, 1995-1996) and a Research Grant of the Basque Research Council (1997-1999) and it was published in 1999. The notion of asylum as a human right was later explored in relation to EU secondary legislation in her book chapter ‘Refugee Status and Subsidiary Protection under EC Law: The Qualification Directive and the Right to Be Granted Asylum’ (Hart 2007) and in relation to EU primary legislation in her article ‘The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the Right to be Granted Asylum in the Union’s Law’ (RSQ 2008). In 2011 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) awarded her a Small Research Grant to examine the current state of play in the Latin American and African regions, and the preliminary findings were published by UNHCR in January 2013. Dr Gil-Bazo's later research (IJRL 2015) argues that asylum is a general principle of international law.

Dr Gil-Bazo's research has been cited by UNHCR in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the EU (Case C-411/10 N.S. v Secretary of State for the Home Department (2011) and Case C-528/11 Halaf (2013)). She was invited by the European Commission (2008) and the European Parliament (2011) to provide Expert Advice on the reform of the EU's Asylum Legislation leading to the adoption of the Common European Asylum System. She has also provided Expert Advice to the Government of Ecuador on Diplomatic Asylum in International Law (the Julian Assange case) in 2012, and to the European Parliament on the legal issues arising from the granting of asylum to whistle-blowers in light of the European Parliament's report on the US NSA surveillance programme (the Snowden Report) in 2014.

Current Work

Her current research includes:

· The Role of International Organisations and Human Rights Monitoring Bodies in Refugee Protection

This research examines the developing work by international courts and international human rights monitoring bodies (IHRMBs) on protection issues. IHRMBs have developed a sound body of case-law on the rights of non-nationals in relation to entry, stay and non-removal from their countries of asylum. It is now well established that international human rights law protects individuals against refoulement. However, the case-law of IHRMBs increasingly reflects what may constitute an emerging trend to go beyond the risk of removal to prohibited treatment. This research draws on previous research examining the interplay between international refugee law and international human rights law, published in 1999 on asylum as a human right. A Workshop on ‘The Role of International Courts and Human Rights Monitoring Bodies in Refugee Protection’ was held in Brussels in June 2013, gathering academics and representatives of international organisations and human rights monitoring bodies to discuss emerging areas of research. The Workshop was generously funded by the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal. A selection of papers has been published as a Special Issue of the Refugee Survey Quarterly (2015).

Recent Work

· The nature of asylum in international law

This research seeks to identify the nature of asylum in international law. It examines asylum as an institution for protection (and therefore distinct from refugee status, as one of the legal categories of beneficiaries of asylum) and enquiries into its nature as a general principle of international law. The paper explores different approaches to asylum and to general principles in different legal traditions and draws from the historical development of the institution of asylum and its current normative framework as a norm of constitutional rank to argue that asylum constitutes a general principle of international law. The findings of this research have been published in the International Journal of Refugee Law (2015).

This project draws from previous research on the right to be granted asylum in Europe (published by the Refugee Survey Quarterly in 2008), which has been cited by UNHCR in proceedings before the the Court of Justice of the EU in the case of N.S. v Secretary of State for the Home Department (C-411/10), judgment of 21 December 2011, and in the case of Halaf (C-528/11, judgment of 30 May 2013). It also draws from a previous project that examines State practice in Africa and Latin America that implements international human rights provisions on the right to be granted asylum, including the constitutional nature of this right, and which was funded by a UNHCR Small Grant awarded in July 2011 ($3,500), whose findings have been published at UNHCR's New Issues in Refugee Research Series.

· Territorial and jurisdictional aspects of refugee protection

This research examines the relation between refugees and the State by means of the transformation of the territorial and jurisditional links between them. It draws from previous research on the Safe Third Country concept published in 2006 at the International Journal of Refugee Law (which is the 2nd most cited article in the journal), followed by an analysis of the territorial and federal clauses in the 1951 Refugee Convention (funded by the German Research Council), a preliminary-study on States' responses to secondary movements in 2011 (commissioned by UNHCR in the context of UNHCR’s commemorations of the 60th Anniversary of the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees), and an article published in 2015 at the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights on State practice in relation to the Safe Country concepts for the allocation of responsibility for refugee protection.

Postgraduate Supervision

Dr Gil-Bazo supervises Postgraduate research in International Law, EU Law, Refugee Law, and Human Rights. She is currently supervising Cosmas Ikegwuruka's PhD on deportation and removal of migrants, and Abdullah Yassen's PhD on the Right of Refugees to Durable Solutions -their research profiles can be found at: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/study/postgraduate/studentresearchprofiles

Esteem Indicators

Dr Gil-Bazo is Senior Research Associate at the School of Advanced Studies (University of London) and Fellow of the European Law Institute (Vienna).

Dr Gil-Bazo is Member of the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer Review College, she is Reviewer for the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO), and she has been Evaluator for COST (European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research), an intergovernmental European framework for international co-operation between nationally funded research activities supported from the EU Research and Technological Development Framework Programme.

Dr Gil-Bazo has been consultant for the Council of Europe, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the European Commission, and numerous projects funded by the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe. She is one of the main contributing authors to UNHCR’s The State of the World’s Refugees (Oxford University Press, 2006). She has been a Member to O.S.C.E. Missions in Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1997). She is a Member of the UK National Migration Network (EU Migration Network), convened by the Home Office’s UK Border Agency. She was a member of the Advisory Panel for the project on "Actors of Protection and Application of the Internal Protection Alternative" (APAIPA) coordinated by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and funded by the EU (2013-2014). In 2015 she was appointed as External Expert for the EU Asylum Office (EASO) and in this capacity, she was appointed Expert for the Development of EASO’s official training curriculum on Fundamental Rights and International Protection. This will become the official training of all relevant EU Agencies, including EASO, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the EU Borders Agency (FRONTEX). Also in 2015 she was appointed by the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ) as Legal Expert for the IARLJ-EASO project for the development of the EU curriculum for the training of judges on asylum law. In 2016 she was appointed Member of the Advisory Panel for the European Council on Refugees (ECRE) Study on the implementation of asylum judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU. Also in 2016 she is Member of the Project Team for a Statement by the European Law Institute on Detention of Asylum Seekers and Irregular Migrants and the Rule of Law.

Dr Gil-Bazo has held affiliated status at the Australian National University, University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands), the European University Institute (Florence, Italy), and the UNHCR Centre for Documentation and Research (Geneva, Switzerland), among others. Her articles and book chapters have been published in the UK, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Morocco. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Butterworths Immigration Law Service and a reviewer for publishers including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Hart, Routledge-Cavendish, and for specialised journals, including the International Journal of Refugee Law (OUP), the Human Rights Law Review (OUP), the McGill Law Journal, the Common Market Law Review, and the European Journal of Migration and Law (Martinus Nijhoff).

Dr Gil-Bazo regularly teaches at seminars and conferences in universities in the UK and abroad. Some of the academic events where she has been an Invited Speaker include:

• Asylum as a General Principle of International Law, University Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, Spain (October 2015)

• The Human Rights Implications of EU Policies on Asylum and Migration, Institute for European Studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles (July 2013)

• The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights as a Protection Instrument, Public Lecture at the Centre for European Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra (January 2011)

• The enforceability of the right to be granted protection, at the Workshop on ‘Individualisation’ in refugee protection in the light of recent asylum-related case law from the ECtHR and the CJEU, Aarhus University Globalisation Programme, Denmark (September 2010)

• A Hierarchy of Protection? The Single Procedure and the EC Qualification Directive, at the Conference on Best Practices for Refugee Status Determination: Principles and Standards for State Responsibility, Monash University (Australia) and Université de Montréal (Canada), Prato (Italy) (May 2008)

• The Quest for Freedom, Security and Justice: Who Protects Refugees and Migrants in the EU? Cambridge University Faculty of Law, Cambridge (March 2007)

• The Export of Protection: Safe Third Countries, External Processing of Asylum Claims and Regional Protection Programmes, at the Centre for Migration Law, University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands (February 2006)

• Human Rights Protection in the EU Relations with Third Countries, Centre for Conflict Studies, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands (December 2005)

Engagement/Impact

Dr Gil-Bazo regularly teaches at events and trainings organised by international organisations (such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the European Union) for judges, practising lawyers, government officials, and the military. Some of the events where she has been an Invited Speaker include:

• The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Role and Case-Law of the Court of Justice of the EU and European Court of Human Rights, training for government officials from Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, San Remo International Institute of Humanitarian Law, Belgrade (December 2014)

• The Internal Protection Alternative in International and EU Law, Training on Internal Protection Alternative and Actors of Protection for government officials, judges, and UN & EU representatives, Brussels (May 2014)

• The Jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Expert Roundtable on Preliminary Reference Proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union gathering practitioners from jurisdictions across Europe, as well as Judges and Advocates General from the Court of Justice of the European Union, Luxembourg (March 2014)

• The Right to Asylum, Seminar at Matrix Chambers’ Seminar Series “40 Years On - The UK in the EU” to mark the 40th Anniversary of the UK’s entry into the EU (London, June 2013)

• Invoking Article 18 of the Charter of Fundamental Right, training for the European Legal Network on Asylum (ELENA), at the Course on “The Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights”, Prague, Czech Republic (May 2010)

• The International Legal Framework for Refugee Protection, Opening Lecture at the 39th Course on International Refugee Law, at the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (San Remo, Italy), 9 May 2006.

• Human rights protection and migration controls: the protection of unlawfully present individuals under International Law, training for Albanian government officials organised by IOM, Durres (Albania), 20 June 2005

• The interaction between the EC Qualifications Directive and the ECHR, at the “Third Colloquy on the European Convention on Human Rights and the protection of refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced persons”, organised by the Council of Europe and UNHCR Strasburg, 14 October 2005

• The reality of irregular migration: living and working in Europe in light of International Human Rights Law, at the Conference on “Immigration, integration and human rights”, organised by the European Parliament, Brussels, 30 June 2005

• The Protection of non-nationals in a European Convention of Human Rights Context – People at risk, training to Serbian judges at the seminar “International Standards on Protection of Refugees and Citizenship”, organised by the Council of Europe in co-operation with UNHCR. Belgrade (Serbia), May 2003

• The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, organised by the Law Society of England and Wales. London, June 2000

Funding

LARGE RESEARCH GRANTS:

• Research Grant: four-year full time grant awarded by the Basque Government’s Programme for the Development of Researchers, covering FEC during the time of research as well as of publication of results. Funding granted in 1997.

• Research Grant: two-year full time grant on “Non-nationals and the Law”, funded by Deusto University under its Multidisciplinary Project on “The Foreigner in Today’s European Culture”, covering covering FEC and a three-month short research stay at Oxford University, 1994-1996.

SMALL RESEARCH GRANTS:

• Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal, Workshop on ‘The Role of International Courts and Human Rights Monitoring Bodies in Refugee Protection’ (Brussels), June 2013.

• UNHCR Small Grant, July 2011

• The Oppenheimer Research Support Grant and the Oppenheimer Outreach Grant (University of Oxford) in 2005 and 2006, and the Refugee Studies Centre Research Grant (University of Oxford) in 2006.

• Visiting Scholar on a Short Stay Research Grant at the Centre for Migration Law (Nijmegen University), 2003-2004.

• Visiting Scholar at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence (Italy), funded by the European Union Social Science Information Research Facility (EUSSIRF) Scheme, 1999.

• Research Grant for a Short Research Stay at the United Nations Library (Geneva), covering travel and accommodation expenses, 1998. Award granted by the Basque Government’s Programme for the Development of Research Staff.

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

· Law3017 Public International Law (this module can be taken by students in other programmes, such as Politics)

· Law2062 EU Law

· Law3034 Human Rights (2007-2009 & 2011-2012)

Postgraduate Teaching

· Law8150 The Movement of Persons in a Global World

This course examines nationality, citizenship, and the existing and emerging status of non-nationals under international law and regional organisations, such as the EU. It approaches the study of the movement of persons in a systematic manner by placing it within the broader theoretical and conceptual framework of globalisation and the complex relationship between multiple legal orders (international (universal & regional)/EU/national).

Nationality & citizenship, freedom of movement under international agreements of regional scope, diplomatic status, diplomatic protection, statelessness, and refugee status are examined. The role of international human rights law as a foundation for universal transnational citizenship is also examined.

Teaching Awards

Dr Gil-Bazo was nominated to the Teaching Excellence Awards (TEA) run by Newcastle University Students’ Union in the category ‘Research Supervisor of the Year’ (2013) and to the Learning and Teaching Excellence Awards (LATE) in the category ‘Contribution to Outstanding Feedback’ (2012).